TOP HEADLINES

• Russian forces destroyed a third sea drone in the Black Sea overnight, strikes that officials said were aimed at attacking a bridge linking Crimea to the Russian mainland. The bridge, completed in 2018 four years after Russia took control of the peninsula, has come under repeated strike during the conflict.

• Russia's defense ministry also said it downed two Ukrainian drones over the border region of Belgorod, while separately, the governor of neighboring Kursk region said that a village on the Ukrainian frontier had come under shelling, with one woman injured.

• Ukraine said its troops have broken through Russia's first line of defenses in several places as part of its much vaunted counter-offensive, while the U.S. said it has seen notable progress by Ukrainian forces in southern Zaporizhzhia in the last 72 hours. White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said it was now up to Ukraine on how to capitalize on this success. READ MORE BELOW

• Russian President Vladimir Putin set to hold talks with Türkiye's Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday in the Black Sea resort of Sochi as Ankara and the UN seek to revive the collapsed Ukraine grain export deal that had helped ease a global food crisis. Türkiye's foreign minister met Russian defense chief Sergei Shoigu in Moscow on Friday to discuss grain ahead of the Erdogan meeting.

• The U.S. is for the first time set to send controversial armor-piercing munitions containing depleted uranium to Ukraine, according to U.S. officials. Opponents of the munitions say the dust the weapons create can be breathed in while stray munitions can poison groundwater and soil, but the U.S. and Britain – which is already providing the munitions to Kyiv - say they do not pose a significant health threat.

EXPLAINER What is depleted uranium?

• President Putin said Russia will allocate 1.9 trillion roubles ($20 billion) from the federal budget over the next two-and-a-half years to the development of the four Ukrainian regions that Moscow last year declared to be part of its territory.

• Major Western naval drills about to start in the Baltic Sea involving more than 3,000 service members will for the first time practise how to respond to a Russian assault in the region, according to Germany. The exercises will include troops from all NATO countries, plus soon-to-be member Sweden and non-Baltic allies the U.S., Canada, the Netherlands, Belgium and France.

• Belarus has summoned a Polish diplomat to protest what it said was a Polish military helicopter's violation of its border, despite Warsaw denying any incursion had occurred. Relations have been strained between the two states since the conflict started, with the arrival of Wagner mercenaries in Belarus earlier this year further exacerbating tensions. 

IN DETAIL

Ukraine says troops breach Russian lines, heavier defenses lie ahead

Ukraine said its troops have broken through Russia's first line of defenses in several places, but now they were facing even more heavily fortified Russian positions.

Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar said Kyiv's troops, in a much-vaunted counteroffensive against Russian forces, were advancing in the Zaporizhzhia region. Washington also said on Friday that Kyiv had made notable progress on the southern front in the last 72 hours.

"There is an offensive in several directions and in certain areas. And in some places, in certain areas, this first line was broken through," Maliar told Ukrainian television.

She added, however, that Kyiv's troops who have been battling to advance through heavily mined areas for almost three months had now run into major defensive Russian fortifications.

"Our armed forces have to overcome a lot of obstacles in order to move forward," she said.

Heavy fighting swept the villages around Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine, captured in May by Russian forces after months of battles, Maliar said but added it was difficult to determine whether any advances had been made: "In the course of a single day, positions between the two sides can change several times."

In Washington, White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said the United States had "noted over the last 72 hours or so some notable progress by Ukrainian armed forces ...in that southern line of advance coming out of the Zaporizhzhia area.

"They have achieved some success against that second line of Russian defences", Kirby said, adding it was up to Ukraine how to capitalize on that success.

Ukraine's counteroffensive has not yet recaptured any major settlements, though it has retaken more than a dozen small villages. 

Russia already calls the Ukrainian push a failure; Kyiv says it has been advancing slowly on purpose to minimize losses, and that its task is more difficult because it lacks air power.

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